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CIC orders Finance Ministry to appoint CPIO

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Press Trust of India New Delhi

The Act has mandated that CPIOs must be deputed in every public authority within 120 days of the Act coming into force.

After one such application filed by RTI activist Subhash Agrawal was returned by the Ministry citing that there was no such officer as CPIO, the matter reached Central Information Commission.

The CIC has now directed the Finance Ministry to depute a CPIO to respond to queries sent by public.

"We have something called a Ministry of Finance with a Finance Secretary in position. Therefore it is rather odd that the Ministry does not itself have a CPIO.

Even if it is admitted that the Ministry operates through various departments under it, the Ministry itself is in existence as a public authority and therefore, it needs to have a CPIO," Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said in the order.

 

He directed the CPIO of the Economic Affairs wing of the Ministry to place this order before the Finance Secretary who shall order to appoint a CPIO or nominate one of the CPIOs to work for the Ministry as well within one month.

The case relates to application of Agrawal where he had sought to know about the currency notes used to garland the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.

  

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First Published: Sep 11 2012 | 8:15 PM IST

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